[CS-FSLUG] wifi problems

[Tim Young]

Hi,
I do not know about your hardware or much about the distro. But, there 
are some things you can do to test to see what the problem is...

1) If the problem is just that DHCP is not working, then you should be 
able to manually assign an IP address, route, and nameserver, and surf 
happily away. Of course, this is a temporary fix until you can determine 
what is wrong with your dhclient...
Try the following:
sudo ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.50
sudo route add default gw 192.168.0.1
sudo echo nameserver 192.168.0.1 > /etc/resolv.conf
Then try surfing.
The number 192.168.0.50 represents the IP we are assigning you. Adapt it 
as needed.
The number 192.168.0.1 represents your gateway. Adapt it as needed.

2) if the ifconfig fails (gives you an error), then you probably have an 
issue with the module for the wireless card.
3) if all the above commands work (no errors), but you cannot ping the 
router, then you could have:
a) the wrong wireless key - double-check the key
b) mac-address filtering stopping you - can you log into the WAP over a 
wire and check this out?

If the driver has an issue, that is a distro specific issue. You could 
possibly rebuild the kernel from source, do a kernel upgrade (yum / 
apt), or use a network wire...

- Tim Young

Dave & Ella McMullen wrote:
> my laptop properly identifies my wireless 'modem' (Actiontec), it's speed,
> channel,frequency,signal strength, etc. (when I give the command: "iwlist
> wlan0 scanning".  wifi-radar also does so, but it will not connect.  Can't
> get an ip number, neither through wifi-radar, or "dhclient wlan0"  I have
> a Compaq Presario v2000 series, with a broadcom 'card' built into the
> motherboard (bcm18xx).  I'm am running Mint7 on the laptop.
>
> Dave Mcmullen
>